You think you're bad? Part II

I began this story last week, writing about all of the people I've known over the years who bragged about how "bad" they were. One should stop and think before one makes such claims...

Captain Jonathan R. Davis, 37, performed what historian John Boessenecker has called "the single most extraordinary feat of self-defense by an American civilian in the annals of frontier history," on December 19, 1854. It happened near Placerville, California, when 11 bandits attacked Davis and his two partners on a remote trail. Above them on a nearby hilltop, and unknown to all, three other "49ers" watched, spellbound, as the drama unfolded.

When the attack began, Davis, armed with two revolvers, killed seven of the bandits - an international group of Mexicans, Americans, two Englishman, a Frenchman and some Aussies - emptying his pistols in the process. (See part 1).

Four more of the bandits drew Bowie knives - one even had a short sword - and began to carefully and warily advance on a man who must have seemed much like the Devil - or perhaps more accurately - an Avenging Angel, to them. At the very least, after seeing what he had done to their comrades, they had to have been a tad more circumspect!

Then Davis pulled his own Bowie knives... In one motion, he fatally stabbed one of the two leaders, and with his other hand, struck a blow so severe that the other leader dropped his knife, along with one of his fingers and his nose.

Advertisement

The last of Davis' attackers were weakened from loss of blood, thanks to the holes that he had blown in them, and put up little fight as their intended victim finished them off.

Aftermath

In the end, three of the outlaws managed to escape this most terrible of peaceable men. Three died later, and eight of them lay dead on the ground at Davis' feet while he caught his breath amidst the rapidly clearing gunsmoke and dust. The captain had accomplished what few could hope to do - even the West's deadliest killer, John Wesley Hardin, had never killed more than five men in one gunfight - but Davis had dramatically bested an unbelievable 14 men, only three of whom would live to tell the tale.

As you might expect from such a man, Davis ignored his own wounds and immediately set about doing what he could for his wounded partner, Doctor Sparks. He had removed his own shirt and was tearing it into strips to bandage Sparks when three more armed men rounded the bend in the trail. Leaping to James McDonald's corpse, Davis retrieved his late friend's revolver and said one word to the three advancing men: "Halt." Seeing the carnage around them, the men were not inclined to argue the point.

They turned out to be other honest miners from a camp about a mile up the American River, on the north fork. They had been out hunting, and it was they who saw the entire battle from a nearby hilltop. All three were in awe of Davis' fearsome accomplishment in ridding the planet of a number of scummy characters who didn't deserve to breathe the same air as Davis and other honest men in the first place.

Epilogue

As always, there were doubters when the story got around. Davis was annoyed by the criticism and invited any and all who wished to accompany him to go to the site where he would personally show them the graves of the fallen. It is significant to note that no one chose to take him up on this invitation. But the witnesses bore Davis' story out anyway, and the only thing that is hard to believe now is the fact that no one seems to have heard this fantastic, but true, tale.

Whether you've heard of it or not, it happened like that, and the next time you hear someone talking about how "bad" they think they are, tell them to think again.

SOURCES: GOLD DUST AND GUNSMOKE by John Boessenecker, and THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WESTERN GUNFIGHTERS, by Bill O'Neal.